Lambing Flat

Pretty pictures...

2011-11-11T23:18:00.000+11:00

Was playing around with the camera recently and took these shots...

This shows my Classic brass 3324 drifting through the station after her recent 'tone up' to the weathering. Originally painted in the mid-1980s, the paint had become a little 'tired' and faded over the years (there is a 'before' picture in an earlier post) so I gave her a touch up. After a good wash (being very careful not to get the DCC chip and speaker in the tender wet!) I touched up the areas where the paint had worn off the brass with a spray of SEM self-etch black, let down with a little SEM grey. When that had dried I reweathered the loco with Tamiya and Badger acrylics, diluted in Isocol alcohol.

Here is another shot of her, which also includes part of a recently 'backdated' On Track Models LLV. The backdating consisted of moving the outer lamp irons to the high position they occupied before the late 1970s, plus adding the end handrails removed when the lamp irons were lowered. Buffers and AR Kits 'Andrews' bogies have also been added.

Here is close up view of the LLV.

It was weathered by 'washing' a little dilute in Isocol alochol Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown into the wheel discs, the bogie springs, the door hinges and the door catches. Then a light spray of very dilute in Isocol Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth all over to give that typical 'dusty' look.

I've also managed to finish off the 53 class, it has had the paint damage (mostly!) touched up, glass fitted to the headlight, a rolled up canvas weathershield added behind the cab and a new fireman recruited.

Well, I thought it was finished until I read Ray Pilgrim's recent post on the easy way to add a 'chuff' cam...

Last, but not least, a 'what used to be', or perhaps a 'what will be again', once I get a DCC chip fitted.

My dear old Trax brass 1248 standing at the station with a typical 1950s branchline passenger train, two 'dogboxes' and a van. This scene may soon be able to be recreated again, now that Ian Phemister has shown me the way to get a Tsunami into the 'small engines'...

Found on Youtube...

2011-11-09T16:44:00.001+11:00

A link was posted in one of the Facebook groups to which I belong to this fantastic 'from the cab' video of a trip from Acacia Ridge to Taree in the NSW North Coast line.

There is quite a lot of stuff on Youtube that is entertaining, but this video is also very useful to anyone attempting to model the NSW North coast line, particularly in the modern era. Thanks to 'v6hilux' for putting it up.

To good not to share...

2011-10-29T12:40:00.001+11:00

Mike McCormac came over a couple of days ago with an (almost ;o) completed sample of one of the variations of his HO scale NSWGR LFX 'dogbox' kits for photographing for the 'Recent Releases' section of the December issue of AMRM.

It really is a mouthwateringly good model and I could not resist posting one of the photos that didn't get used in AMRM!

This is one of the first batch of high elliptical roofed cars which were fitted with the 'old' type underframe and short wheelbase bogies. Later batches had a redesigned underframe with longer wheelbase bogies in an attempt to improve the ride. Click on the image to see a much bigger image to truely appreciate the detail, which includes compartment interiors.

Models don't come much better than this!

She's baaacckkk...

2011-10-17T23:48:00.000+11:00

After some 15 years 'out of service' with a crook chassis, 5303 re-entered service on Lambing Flat this evening, after I finished fitting a Tsunami DCC chip. She runs like a dream, thanks to the excellent chassis constructed for me by Hollywood Foundry.

Here she is entering the loop with a wheat train.

A closer look at the Wampu tender and the cab detail.

I still have a few things to repair and refit (like employing another fireman, her old fireman appears to left the service sometime in the last 15 years!), plus a little 'touching up' to the paint and weathering. However, Lambing Flat is once more host to a 53 class Standard Goods, a very appropriate locomotive type for the setting.

Btw, you can click on the images to see it at a much larger size.

The (almost) return of 5303

2011-10-07T22:12:00.000+11:00

Some months ago I finally got tired of having my favourite locomotive not working, (see previous post (5303, a frail favourite... ) and sent it off the Geoff Baxter at Hollywood Foundry for a new chassis. His custom mechanisms have a justifiable reputation for excellence, and though he doesn't normally do steam locomotives, he made an exception in this case!

This morning a very welcome package arrived and as soon as I finished work for the day I fitted the new chassis to 5303.

This is the magnificently designed and built chassis that arrived in the mail. It runs very smoothly and I am looking forward to having the loco back in service.

(Photo by Geoff Baxter)

She is running under DC control, but there are a few things that need attention before she will be back in service, such as fitting a DCC sound chip and speaker, repairing the cosmetic damage that has occurred during her long period out of service and painting the chassis and 'touching up' the rest of the loco.

Hopefully it won't be too long before a 53 class Standard Goods is once more treading the rails at Lambing Flat.

Progress on the Rurr Valley

2011-09-26T01:13:00.000+10:00

Progress on the Rurr Valley continues.

Not only have I been clearing the layout and making it trafficable again, I have also revived a locomotive construction project that has sat on the workbench, untouched, since late 2005. Here is a photo of showing progress to date on RVR (new) No.2.

It is a 'near enough' model based on the three Baldwin-built 0-6-0T locomotives used by the Mt Lyell Railway for shunting and local work. A photo of the prototype loco appears below.

Mt Lyell No.5 poses at the works some time in the early years of the 20th century.

This is my second attempt at a 'near enough' model based on these locos. The earlier was the first No.2, based on a Bachmann 'Lyn' 2-4-2T.

I was quite happy with the appearance of the loco, but its chassis and motor design was not up to the rigors of running smoothly on the RVR's 'hill', it would 'hunt' alarmingly coming down the hill, due to the 'slop' in the drivetrain. I purchased the LGB 0-6-2T shown below with the idea of combining the cab and boiler of (old) No.2 with the 0-6-0 chassis of the LGB loco, which would give me closer version of the 'inspiration' loco, which would also be a much better runner with a high quality LGB chassis.

Most of the basic construction is now complete and now I just have to finish off the detailling, paint it and install the radio and sound gear recovered from the old loco and I will have another 'useful' engine for the line.

I have also completed 'stage 1' of clearing the line. Trains can now run between Possum Point and Devlins, at the top of the old zig zag. (Stage 2 will have to wait till I rebuild the flood damaged bridges.)

This photo, a quick 'snap' taken with my mobile phone back on 19 August 2011, before I started the clearing described in the previous posts, shows the results of a year's neglect (and the five years of abandonment previous to last year's revival attempt).

Compare this photo with the last image, the 'tunnel' can be just made out at bottom right and the site of Devlins is middle left.

The shot below was taken at the completion of work on the evening of 22 September and show the site of Possum Point station.

The next image shows the entire 'zig zag' area of the line cleared and trafficable on the evening of Friday 24 September. I snapped it with my mobile just at dusk and it shows No.1 shunting at Devlins, about to head down the hill to Possum Point in the background with a works train. I'll replace the rotted away culverts and reballast the entire section before I move on to 'stage 2', which is behind the photographer.

Another day workin' on the railway...

2011-09-16T18:59:00.000+10:00

Got in an hour or so of track clearance on the garden railway this evening. The line is now open from Devlins all the way down the hill to Bottom Points. The track is in remarkably good condition, considering the neglect the railway has suffered over the last six years. Not so the timber culvert about one third of the way up the middle road, it has disappeared completely! The wood has rotted away and will need to be replaced, but it is cosmetic only, the track is strong enough to span the gap so I can still run trains. (It does serve to allow water to drain under the railway, so it is cosmetic only in the sense that it doesn't support the track!)

When it had got too dark to work I spent a couple of minutes running No.1 and a few wagons up and down the hill. No.1 is running beautifully after her 'overhaul' last week. The old battery pack had deteriorated to the extent that I was lucky to get one trip up the hill out of her, but the new one is very strong, she is still running on the charge she got last weekend!

It was too dark to photograph, so I have used a photo I took at Bottom Points last year to illustrate what the location looks like now.

No.1 and a works train at Bottom Points on 4 July 2010 during last year's attempt to get the RVR operational again.

The Rurr Valley revival - take 2.

2011-09-13T23:17:00.000+10:00

Last year I got about half the garden railway operational again after five years of neglect and three floods that damaged the two large bridges, cutting the main line to Underpool. Unfortunately, I did not do any further work between last October and a couple of days ago, for various reasons. However, the dispatch of the October issue of AMRM to the printer at the end of August (and the end of the soccer season!) gave me a little time for modelling. The first thing I did was to get No.1 running again, in order to review a MyLocoSound large scale sound chip (you can read the review in the December issue of AMRM). No.1 needed a new battery pack and speaker, and once I had done that and fitted and tested the new sound card, I decided it was about time I had some railway to run it on!

I started at the top station last week and cleared a short section, but didn't get another chance to get down in the garden till yesterday.

No.1 and the ballast wagon are standing on the section I cleared last week. The other side of the level crossing shows the results of a year's neglect. That is what the rest of the railway looks like!

Half an hour later and the line was clear through the station. There is a lot of 'scouring' of the ballast, so when I get the entire line clear there will be a lot of reballasting!

No.1 stands at the Devlins platform.

An hour's work saw the track cleared down to through the cutting to the site where 'Top Points' were back in the days of the zig-zag, which is about a third of the way down the hill to Possum Point. Hopefully, trains will be running between Devlins and Possum point before long, but I will have to build two new bridges before trains can run to Underpool again.

The Clever Things You Find on the Internet...

2011-09-09T12:36:00.000+10:00

Was reading the Australian_N_Scale Yahoo group when 'Mark' made a post regarding downloadable containers. Now Lambing Flat has no need of containers, and never will have, but I'm a curious sort of fellow, so I went and had a look. What I found was a German language site aimed at ship modellers, but with a page of downloadable containers in various scales (including HO and N scale) to print out on a card, cut out and assemble. Having a couple of pieces of card handy, I printed a couple out and assembled them, which took about five minutes.

They would look pretty effective as 'background' at a container depot and would be a lot cheaper than buying scores of injection moulded containers. They could even be used on wagons, if one was so inclined.

These, (and many others) can be downloaded at: http://www.igshansa.de/igsorg.html (then go to the 'Download/English' page.

Amazing what is available on the net these days...

From the vaults-5: Fruit trains.

2011-08-03T14:54:00.000+10:00

It has been a long time since I have posted anything, and with the October issue of AMRM rapidly approaching its print deadline, I doubt I'll be posting anything else for the next month, so here is another 'from the vaults'.

This, taken on 24 December 2005 in pre-DCC days, shows my weathered Trainorama 4429 arriving from Cowra with a Darling Harbour bound fruit train, with a couple of stock wagons, heading for Flemington, attached to build up the load. Once the fruit train has cleared, the goods, headed by 5262, will get the staff for the short section to the junction between the lines from Cowra and Demondrille and proceed towards Demondrille. On Lambing Flat the junction arrangements reflect that found at Binnaway, on the cross-country line from Werris Creek to Dubbo, rather than the 'straight through' arrangements found at Young on the prototype NSWGR. This was done to make the operation of Lambing Flat, which is quite a small layout, more interesting, as every 'through' train has to be reversed.

Back on the model, once the Standard Goods has departed, 4429 will run round its train, attach any loading originating in Lambing Flat and then proceed towards Demondrille, once 5262 has cleared the section to Wombat. Up to the late 1960s, fruit was an important traffic on the railways around Young (where I grew up and the inspiration for Lambing Flat). It was so important that the local radio station 2LF, during the fruit season, would announce the time that the fruit truck arrived at Darling Harbour as part of the morning news!

Bowen Creek at the Thornleigh exhibition.

2011-06-13T01:38:00.008+10:00

Andrew Campbell and Ian Millard's Bowen Creek was exhibited at the Thornleigh exhibition over the June long weekend. It looks fantastic and runs very well. I photographed it on Friday evening for a future article for AMRM. Here is one of the images.

On Sunday I also took some video with my old digital camera (it is much better for video than my 'work' camera). It's up on Youtube already!

It is a wonderful layout, it captures that '1970s' look to perfection, and it is well worth a long look!

From the vaults-4: Diesel era on Lambing Flat.

2011-06-10T14:33:00.001+10:00

I've always tried to keep a consistent era on Lambing Flat, though I haven't always succeeded! Ostensibly, the layout is set in the mid-1950s, but with my excursions into pre-WW2 models and the fabulous r-t-r early diesel era models that have come onto the market over the last couple of years, LF's timeframe has 'stretched' a little.

However, while rollingstock can be taken on and off the layout to suit a particular timeframe, the fixed infrastructure can't, and so it is the buildings and other infrastructure that really sets the timeframe of a layout, rather than the rollingstock. Luckily for my preferred eras, NSWGR branchline infrastructure didn't change all that much from the early years of the 20th century till the mid-1970s, so I can 'stretch' my timeframe a little without having to call in the Detail Police and arrest myself!

About the latest I can go with levels of traffic I prefer to run is about 1974, when the 'fuel crisis' of the time gave the Department an excuse to cut most branchline passenger services. Once the passenger services went, the rot really set in, with the beginning of wholesale demolition of buildings and progressive reduction in services till, by the late 1980s, just about everything had gone; freight, stock and all, with the only thing left on most branchlines being bulk wheat. Even that went in most places eventually, leaving very little of the former extensive NSW branchline network intact by the 2000s.

So here is another photo 'from the vaults' (this one was taken on 30 December 2005, before the layout went DCC), showing Trainorama 4429 arriving at Lambing Flat, circa 1970-72, with the remnants of the Mail. (Click through for a bigger view.)

The train, as was typical of the period, has an MLV (Rails North epoxy kit) for parcels, and FS and BS (modified Trax) for the sitting passengers, then an EHO (see EHO1473, or is it 1469? earlier in this blog) for the guard and more parcels, then an ACM (Rails North epoxy kit) for the few remaining sleeping car passengers, with a CR (Workshop 5 epoxy kit) bringing up the rear with the through passengers to Murringo (the car will be detached and added to the Murringo Mixed after the 44 class has run around. The 48 class hauled Murringo Mixed will then enter the platform once the Mail has departed for Cowra). The yard is very quiet, a few S trucks at the goods shed in No.1 siding, while a K truck is being loaded with wool in the back road. The old D truck, of no use now that there is no steam locomotive ash to distribute as ballast along the pioneer line to Murringo, will soon disappear from the scene, probably sent to Junee to be burnt.

This was the how things looked at the very end of the NSWGR era. With the advent of the PTC and then the SRA, the passenger service will be cut back severely, then replaced with a road coach, the general goods and stock traffic will be abandoned and all that will be left will be bulk wheat and the occasional enthusiast tour...

The 'work' camera has been repaired...

2011-06-06T00:04:00.000+10:00

The post below on the 'fun and games' that happened on the way to the Hobson's Bay exhibition came about due to my damaging my 'work' camera (the one I use to take photographs for AMRM). For the News section of the June and the Gallery and News sections of the August issue, which I am working on now, I had to revert to my 'old' camera. Luckily it was a pretty good camera and the images are still of acceptable quality (though I can tell the difference!), but with extremely good timing (the Thornleigh exhibition is next weekend), the 'work' camera arrived back from the repairer on Saturday.

Of course, I had to check it and re-set it to my preferred settings for model photography, plus the settings had to be checked. Ideally, the 'test' shots would have been of something I had recently photographed with the 'old' camera, so as to get a direct comparison. The logical model to use would have been 5303, which appears in a recent post, but 5303 is still at 'Geoff's Hospital' in Victoria, so I grabbed the next best thing...

This is my Mansfield brass model of 5184, as she appeared while allocated to Lithgow during the late 1950s - early 1960s. The locomotive has been given some extra detail (headlight glass and crew) as well as a front coupler. The tender is not the one that came with the loco (that tender is currently behind 5262), it is, in fact, a superdetailled FSM whitemetal kit, dating from the late 1970s. Older modellers may remember the FSM range of whitemetal kits, they were 'state of the art' in the late '70s and could be made up into quite a nice model, as can be seen from the tender above and 5303, further down the page. The range consisted of the 53 and 55 Standard Goods locos, 24 and 25 class Moguls and a 35 class 4-6-0. I have a 55 class kit tucked away, and had a 24 class running for a while in the early 1980s (it has been sitting in the showcase for about 20 years, about 75% of the way through an 'overhaul'). I wonder how many of them are still running...

Anyway, getting back to the subject of this post, it appears that the 'work' camera has been restored to full health!

Prototype File - NSWGR FS/BS cars

2011-05-30T17:26:00.003+10:00

The release of the Austrains NSWGR FS/BS corridor cars has been welcomed by many modellers, but for those who would like to add a little extra detail or weathering, it’s not as easy as it once was to get suitable prototype photos to aid that endeavour.

Delving into my photo collection in response to an enquiry from Ian Phemister, I dug up the following photos I took in Sydney yard in 1985 (in those days I was an SRA guard, so getting photos like these was not much of a problem!)

A Tuscan red BS in Sydney yard in 1985. Even at this late stage this BS still had the lampirons in the high position (the railways had started lowering lampirons in the 1970s, to make it safer for staff to attach the lamps). The Austrains model has them in the lower position, correct only for some cars from the mid-1970s on, but as Ian shows in his blog, it is quite easy to reposition them. The 'candy' FS to the right has the lampirons in the lower position and, as a consequence, the end handrail moved to the side of the vehicle.

The same BS, showing various details, including the lining on the doors (missing from the Austrains model). Even at this late stage, carriage sides were faded, but not filthy, as they were regularly washed. The photo has faded a little (and was originally shot in the middle of the day) but it can be seen that the lining colour was buff, a creamy yellow, not the virulent chrome yellow one sees on far too many models!

The interior of an FS compartment. The interior timberwork was varnished, over the light coloured timber fashionable in the 1930s when the cars were originally built. Second class seat cushions were a dark maroony colour. The floors were covered by a light brown Linoleum.

The interior of an BS first class compartment. On some cars, the lower panels below the windows had been replaced with new timber, painted cream with brown trim. The first class seat cushions were a dark green colour.

The corridor of a BS.

I trust these prototype photos will be of use to those who may wish to further detail their Austrains FS/BS cars, or even the old Trax/Powerline versions.

Ian has already done some work on his FS/BS cars, the results can be seen on his 'Muswellbrook and Merriwa Railway' blog. It still amazes me how much good weathering improves a model!

Until mine turn up, I'll just have to make do with a couple I prepared earlier...

Back in the early '90s I detailled a couple of Trax S cars for Lambing Flat. This is the FS finished in post 1954 Indian red with buff lining. The Trax/Powerline models were pretty basic, so a lot of extra detail went into them.

This is the BS first class car. They have both given many years of service to the passengers using the cross-country line through LF, and are much preferred by the HO people to the rough old 'dogbox' carriages that make up most of the trains on the line!

5303, a frail favourite...

2011-05-11T18:19:00.000+10:00

I think we all have locomotives that we are very fond of, but which, for various reasons, don't quite 'measure up' when it comes to running smoothly and reliably. My best example is this model of 5303...

A model of a NSWGR Standard Goods locomotive, 5303 is the only kit-built locomotive I have ever got around to finishing (my main focus is rolling stock, operation and the overall 'look' of the railway). I am quite happy to use modified and weathered r-t-r locomotives (brass, back when I 'got serious' in the 1980s and plastic r-t-r now). However, I have acquired a couple of kits along the way, but this loco, which started as an FSM whitemetal kit that I originally purchased in the 1970s, is the only one that had actually entered service on Lambing Flat. I originally constructed it in 1992/93 and it ran (sort of) till around 1995, when it finally gave up the ghost and refused to move (its last faltering steps were accidentally captured on video by Bruce Norton, who was visiting at the time!) While it looks quite nice (I had added quite a lot of extra detail, and altered it to represent one of the 'drumhead' smokebox locomotives with 'standard' boilers, as most of them appeared in the 1940s, during the transition between the original tapered boilers and the more familiar 'built up' smokeboxes of the 1950s/60s), it never ran satisfactorily, thanks to its rather 'agricultural' design of chassis and rather indifferent assembly of same by yours truly! (I've never been brilliant at mechanical things!)

It's another if my models that have languished in the showcase for the last 15 years or so, as my couple of attempts to get it running again have been abject failures. I would rather like to get it operational again, as it is the only 53 class I have completed (I missed out on the Classic brass 53, I haven't yet built my '40th Birthday' DJH 53 and the long promised Traino 53 appears to be a few years away still!) and the 53 class were the mainstay of the Blaney-Demondrille line from which Lambing Flat takes its inspiration. So, taking a leaf from the 'real railways' book when a recalcitrant locomotive proved impossible to repair locally, it has been sent away to 'workshops' for specialist repairs (Geoff's 'Hollywood Hospital'!) The current turn-around is quoted as around two months, so I will just have to wait! (I've already waited 15 years; I think I can wait a little longer!)

In the meantime, I'll just have to admire the photos I took of her before despatch and dream of once more seeing and hearing the clank of a 53 class trundling along on Lambing Flat!

From the vaults-3: Lambing Flat under construction 1985

2011-05-06T13:27:00.000+10:00

I have gone even further back with this shot!

This photo (scanned from a print) was taken in early 1985 and shows the second module under construction. The first module (the mill section) was completed in time to be shown at the 1984 Modelling the Railways of NSW convention at the old Rockdale clubrooms of the Australian Model Railway Association (the last one to be held there). I am pleased to remember that the mill module caused quite a stir when it was shown for the first time!

By the time this photo was taken construction of the second module was well under way and I set this scene up for a bit of fun. The module itself was constructed from plywood and the scenery was pretty much finished before I started tracklaying. The handlaid code 55 points were constructed 'on the workbench' as a unit and then transferred to the layout. When the position of the points was finalised the plain track was constructed to link them. I hadn't finalised the trackplan when this photo was taken and the station arrangement subsequently constructed was slightly different to this original idea. The layout was originally located in the sunroom of my tiny two-bedroom semi in inner-suburban Burwood (Sydney). When my first child came along in 1991 it was moved upstairs into the newly converted loft space, where it resided untill we moved in 1999. Both my children could climb the loft ladder before they learnt to walk!

The train in the background was modelled on full-size construction trains seen in old photos. The MLE flat wagon conveyed rail, the S and K trucks carried sleepers and other stores, while the construction engine, Trax brass 1248, has a water gin attached, to allow it more time in the section. The van also conveyed the workers to the worksite.

Locomotive 1248 is another that has not yet been fitted with a DCC chip and so is not currently in use.

From the vaults-2: 5184 in 1992

2011-05-05T23:08:00.000+10:00

Had another rummage in the 'vaults' and turned up this scan of a print I took in the backyard (natural light) at Lambing Flat's original location at Burwood. In those days, before I had decent lights (and learnt how to use them) I would take sections of the layout out into the backyard and photograph various scenes in natural light.

This scene shows Standard Goods 5184 crossing a trestle bridge on the newly built 'north curve' section in late 1992. The section of the layout was constructed to connect the turntable end of the layout to the 'Cowra' fiddle yard when the layout moved upstairs to the loft at my old place in Burwood. This section is no longer part of the layout, mainly as the 2ft (600mm) curve needed to fit the layout into the loft was just a little tight for some of the rolling stock. I was quite pleased with the way the scenery turned out however, so I may incorporate it in the current version of the layout 'one of these days'.

Steam locomotive 5184 is a Mansfield brass model to which I had attached a kit-built FSM whitemetal Turret tender. It is not currently in service on Lambing Flat as it doesn't yet have a DCC chip. It may reappear soon, as I have a Tsunami 'earmarked' for it, but haven't yet got around to fitting it.

The trestle was scratchbuilt in timber to NSWGR standard drawings.

From the vaults-1: 3610 in pre-DCC and pre-decent camera days!

2011-04-30T00:12:00.000+10:00

Sent the June issue of AMRM to the printer today, so too exhausted to do anything other than put up these old photos of my converted Austrains 36 class! Found them while rummaging around in the old files for something else. They were taken after I got my first digital camera, a Canon PowerShot A300, and were part of a series I took while experimenting with the colour balance features. I had just finished weathering my modified Austrains 3610 and was rather proud of it! These photos were taken back on 7 October 2005, before I joined AMRM and before the layout went DCC.

I quite like the composition and colour balance, even if it isn't as sharp as the photos I can take these days with the much better camera I now have at my disposal. Click on the image if you would like to see it full-size.

Here is another shot from the same session.

Somehow the 'softer' focus seems to add to the realism...

Fun and games on the way to Hobson's Bay...

2011-04-21T19:17:00.000+10:00

I'm off to the Hobson's Bay exhibition in Melbourne over the Easter weekend. I go down every year, as it is a very good exhibition for getting content, especially new model releases, for AMRM. I usually score a Gallery as well, and occasionally a layout feature or other article, so it is AMRM money well spent!

This year's exhibition is not too well timed from my point of view though, as it is right at the end of the magazine's 'cycle' (normally we would be going to press on Friday) and we could only extend the deadline for a week, otherwise the on-time delivery of the mag would be affected. That means that I am going to be very busy next Tuesday and Wednesday (we 'assemble' on Thursday, do the final proofreading on Thursday night, then it all goes to the printer on Friday), trying to get as much content for the News section processed as possible - there is going to have to be some 'prioritisation', I'm afraid!

So, of course, with everything so tight for time, something else was bound to go wrong...

Between taking the photos of Greg Hunter's layout (see post of 5 April) and setting up to take some 'news' photos on 12 April, I somehow managed to seriously scratch the lens of my lovely Panasonic 'work' camera! It appears that it can be repaired (for a price...), but in the meantime, with Hobson's Bay coming up, what was I going to do for photographs!

Luckily my old Fuji camera, which I used for magazine photos between 2006 and 2008, was still upstairs somewhere, relegated to use as the 'family' camera. It doesn't produce pictures that are quite as good as the images produced by the more modern Panasonic, but beggars can't be choosers...

I wonder if it still works...

Luckily it did, once I had charged up the batteries, and I then had to give myself a 'refresher'. While doing so I had to take a few 'test' images, and what better to photograph than my workbench!

Here is the 'Lambing Flat' workshops in all its messy glory! There is the usual clutter of tools and other bits and pieces, but there is one thing that I find particularly useful... so useful that it hasn't been changed or replaced since I built it back in the late 1970s. I refer to my 'test track', which is simply a piece of 2" x 1" timber with a section of Peco code 100 track stuck to it and a Kadee height gauge on one end. That simple 'tool' serves many purposes, beyond the obvious of checking Kadee heights and ensuring models actually roll! It is where I keep the models I am actually working on, I can attach a 12v power supply with alligator clips to test locomotives and it is also a very useful painting stand, as can be seen from the 30 years of paint build up!

While I was doing my 'refresher' I also photographed the chest of drawers that I use for material storage on the other side of the room...

This structure has also been around for a very long time. The three drawers hold most of my supplies of building material and unbuilt kits, while the 'cover' once served as layout support for Lambing Flat back in its original location back in the Burwood days. Where the shoebox and Dremel box are now once served as the Lambing Flat fiddleyard. There were two aluminium runners running fore and aft on top of the chest of drawers, on which one of my plywood-built model boxes used to rest. It could be pulled in and out for access like a drawer. In those days the flour mill section of Lambing Flat used to rest on top of the cover, where the buildings are now, and a train would be set up on the mainline, using models from the sliding box, run into the station, do its shunting, then run out again and be returned to the box. This arrangement was adopted because there wasn't enough space for a conventional fiddleyard where Lambing Flat was originally erected in my tiny two-bedroom semi in Burwood. Oh, and the buildings are models that I have constructed over the years, but which have not, for various reasons, found a place on the layout proper.

A new horsebox for Lambing Flat, KKG 1531

2011-04-07T20:07:00.001+10:00

For the first time in nearly 30 years, Lambing Flat can once more transport horses in more salubrious surroundings than a cattle wagon. Lambing Flat's first horsebox was an old MRC offering that was cast in the translucent plastic material that was used for kits in those far off days. I did manage to capture it (accidentally) in a photo of something else, back in 1980 when both I and Lambing Flat were very much younger!

Thirty one years ago, Lambing Flat had code 100 track, not much scenery and very few buildings, but it was already showing signs of being a secondary line. My original MRC KKG horsebox stands in the dock as 3041, a Bergs brass 30T, stands in the loop, waiting for an opposing train in the lounge room of my rented flat in Bexley North. This was the already the third version of Lambing Flat, the current version is the sixth!

A year or so later, in 1981, there was a bit more scenery and some buildings had started to appear as green 3324 headed a passenger train that included the MRC horsebox. The 32 class was scratchbuilt in styrene on a Tyco chassis, the HFL was an MRC kit, as was the EHO at the rear of the train. The FS and BS were kits by Australian Transport Models. When I moved from Bexley North to Burwood in 1983 the layout, after a short time 'on loan' at the old AMRA clubrooms at Rockdale, was dismantled and most of the rollingstock, including the KKG, sold off. It was to be nearly 28 years before another horsebox appeared on the line to Lambing Flat.

The process of acquiring another horsebox for Lambing Flat actually started in the mid-1990s when LMR released a 'milky bar' kit of the KKG. There were two versions, in original condition with a clerestory roof and in rebuilt condition with an arc roof and roof ventilators. I purchased both versions, and as I was becoming interested in the 1920s/'30s period at the time, construction was commenced on the clerestory version around 1997/8. For various reasons (I acquired a computer, got connected to the net and then moved house and started work on a garden railway, then got recruited by AMRM!), work ceased on the model in late 1998 and the model sat in my showcase till early this year (2011!)

First some prototype background...

This is the only photograph I know of showing one of the NSWGR's 'small' (KKG) bogie horseboxes in original condition. It has been published in Paul Roger’s article on the BKG and KKG horseboxes that started on p20 of the March/April 1980 issue of AMRM and later, in a better quality version, on p249 of volume 1 of ‘Coaching Stock of the NSW Railways’, published by Eveleigh Press (the book publishing arm of my employer!) in 1999. The photo shows wooden underframed KKG1529, introduced into service in July 1911, posed for the official photographer (probably around the time it was introduced). The horseboxes were all originally fitted with clerestory roofs. From 1922 they had the clerestory removed and ventilators fitted to the now arc roof and looked like my original model above.

In the instructions to the kit it is asserted that the original versions were either varnished or Tuscan red, however, there is no evidence to support that and plenty to indicate that they were, in fact, painted in the standard passenger colour scheme of the time, either purple brown or Venetian red (the documentation is vague on what colour was being used on passenger cars from around 1905 till 1920). It is very unlikely that they were varnished, unpainted timber for a number of reasons. First, the 'modern' varnished timber colour scheme was introduced with Lucy's 1913 suburban cars (the ones with steel underframes that were rebuilt into suburban electric trailer cars in the 1920s) and the 72ft passenger cars, the first of which also entered service in 1913. The other piece of evidence (aside from the fact that there is no mention of them having varnished, unpainted timber in any official correspondence) is that they had a lot of metal strapping on the exterior and one can't varnish metal! If they were varnished, they metalwork would have been painted black and there would be a contrast between the timber and metal parts of the car in contemporary photos. As can be seen in the photo above, (allowing for the known idiosycrasies of the film in use at the time) there appears to be no difference in 'tone' between the timber and metal parts of the vehicle. Interestingly, however, the larger timber underframed versions of the BKG horseboxes, introduced between 1894 and 1911, definitely show a difference in 'tone' between the timber and metal parts of the vehicles! Perhaps they were varnished! There is no doubt though, that once the KKG horseboxes were rebuilt from 1922 on, they would have been painted overall, unlined, Venetian red (referred to as Tuscan red in NSWGR documentation, but it was a different shade to that used by the NSWGR after 1954 and called 'Tuscan red' by enthusiasts). It was more likely the brighter, oranger red used up to 1954 in the 'Tuscan and russet' scheme.

Anyway, back to the model, which had sat, forgotten and unloved, in my showcase from 1998 till early this year...

In 1998 I had proceeded as far as modifying the body to backdate it (I am constitutionally incapable of building a model to the manufacturer's instructions... ;o) to the appearance of the prototype by changing the timber planking of the groom's compartments from vertical to horizontal by filling the vertical grooves, sanding smooth and scribing new horizontal planking (the masters for the model appear to have been adapted from the more modern version of the vehicle, on which the planking is vertical). I had also filled and scribed the edges of the ends to represent the corner posts, which are missing completely from the ends of the kit. Then it was abandoned...

Earlier this year I got the yen to do some more HO modelling, so I decided it was about time to clear out the deeper recesses of the showcase... Along with the RU and SV detailled in previous posts, the KKG suddenly found itself blinking confusedly in the light of day...

The kit whitemetal buffers were discarded and replaced with more accurate Turton buffers made from the shanks of the Turton buffers included in the Silvermaz GSV kit, fitted with brass buffer heads. The AR Kits 2AA bogies were replaced with detailled Protype 2AA bogies (the AR kits 2AA bogies from the kit found themselves under my rebuilt Trainorama OHG - more on the OHG/GHG project in a future post!) The handrails, doorhandles and centre lamp irons were scratchbuilt from brass wire or flat strip, as appropriate, while the upper lamp irons came from an AM Models etch. The canvas roof was represented by gluing tissue paper to the roof. My method of doing this is to fill up the sink with water, put some PVA glue on the roof, carefully spread a piece of tissue on the water surface and then bring the model up under the tissue. If done correctly, when it has all dried one has a perfectly 'stretched' canvas roof on the model. I also made the partitions between the compartments and the seats from styrene.

The model now looked like this...

Next step was to paint it. As this is a clerestory roofed vehicle, I decided to paint it purple brown, as my conclusion was that this was the most likely colour scheme carried by the prototype. But what does purple brown actually look like? The colour scheme disappeared long before colour photography, but luckily, some colour samples, plus other information, has survived. Two shades of purple brown were released as a standard colour in a range of paints available briefly in the late 1990s (was it Bakers SRM? I can't read the brand on my bottle anymore, it is covered with paint!) I purchased a bottle of the Light Purple Brown over ten years ago and it had sat on the shelf, unused, since then. When I first opened the bottle my heart sank, as the thinner had sublimed away and there was just a sticky mess at the bottom of the bottle. However, as this paint is no longer available (as far as I know) and I had nothing to lose, I filled the bottle with universal paint thinner, stirred it thoroughly and left it for a day or two, stirring it every now and then. Imagine my sigh of relief when, a couple of days later, I had a bottle of viable paint!

As mentioned above, the purple brown colour scheme disappeared so long ago that there are no colour photos of cars in that scheme... or is there? This photo has always intrigued me...This photograph, from Ron Selems' 'Steam in the Fifties' (NSWRTM 1991), shows a Newcastle train descending Cowan Bank behind 3528, sometime after 1954. The first 'dogbox' is particularly interesting, as it is possible that the car is still painted purple brown. The roof is relatively clean, but the 'Navy Dressing' does not appear particularly fresh, indicating that the car may not have been in service for some time (Navy Dressing was 'sticky', so it got dirty very quickly in service). The colour of the car does not match either the two Tuscan and russet cars immediately behind or the post-1954 Indian red end-platform car set. Could this be the elusive purple brown... Here is an enlargement of the car.

It certainly is an intriguing photograph...

Anyway, back to painting the model...

The model was undercoated with SEM self-etch grey and then painted with the Light Purple Brown. Once the purple brown was dry I masked off and painted the interior cream and the underframe and bogies SEM self-etch black. The black details were handpainted with Badger Engine Black and then when that was all dry, ILM KKG decals were applied and the model sealed with Badger Flat Clear. Weathering was done using my dilute acrylic paint method. First various details, such as the springs and brake blocks were picked out with a very dilute mix of Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown and Isocol alcohol, then the airbrush came out and my ‘roof muck’ mix of Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown and XF-1 Flat Black and lots of Isocol alcohol sprayed over the roof, and then the underframe and lower edges of the body sprayed with a very dilute ‘mist’ of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth. When that had dried I went over the body and solebars/bufferbeams with a very dilute ‘wash’ of Aqueous Hobby Color H343 Soot applied with a large brush. Then I hand painted ‘oil’ (semi-gloss black) around the axleboxes and flat black on the Kadee ‘tangs’ and the clear plastic windows were glued in with Aquadhere and now KKG 1831 is ready to do some useful work! I aimed for a worn, but reasonably well kept, vehicle which is only a year or two away from overhaul. Here it is from the other side...

While it is a bit out of period for the normal 1950s operating period on Lambing Flat it does look nice and serves the purpose of transporting valuable horses. During operations, it appears form time to time attached to a passenger train, in transit through the modelled section of the line. It does open up some intriguing operational prospects though, the most obvious of which would be a country race meeting, which would involve the operation of a special train of dogboxes (or even end-platform cars) with horsebox(es) attached to convey the locals citizens to the racecourse, which in the steam era, were often a couple of miles outside town. The railways department would often provide a special train for the conveyance of racegoers and racecourse staff in country areas.

Here is the KKG in service, attached to the Mail, circa 1930.

Run Day at Greg Hunter's 2 April 2011

2011-04-05T14:30:00.000+10:00

For the first time since 2005, I dusted off some Large Scale rollingstock and headed off to a run day at Greg Hunter's garden layout, the Sandstone and Termite. Greg has a website describing the layout, and an early version of his layout was featured in AMRM Issue 219 (December 1999).

I'm not an early riser, so by the time I got there, everyone else was leaving! However, Greg and I still had a bit of fun as I admired all the additions he had created since my last visit and re-familiarised myself with this huge railway that goes right around his substantial backyard.

My RVR No.12, a converted Bachmann 'Annie' 4-6-0, waits on the through line at Ti-tree with my mineral train as Greg's No.14 overtakes with a short goods train.

Greg's No.14 has a scratchbuilt body on an Aristocraft eight-couped chassis and a Bachmann 'Big-hauler' tender. The loco is inspired by the Emu Bay Railway 4-8-0s, though it appears that the NSWGR's locomotive engineer, William Thow, has had some input into the design of the cab!

Greg's No.14 has proceeded from Ti-tree and is seen here passing the South Australian Railways inspired goods shed at Sandstone. This station was the terminus of the original version of the line.

After passing through Sandstone, Greg's No.14 is seen here passing behind the township of Lilyvale, heading for Maple Jnt. Lilyvale township has grown considerably since my last visit!

Meanwhile, back at Ti-tree, Greg's No.9, a loco clearly based on the SMR 10 class tanks, featuring a scratchbuilt body on another Aristocraft eight-coupled chassis, waits for my train to clear the main so it can propel back out of the refuge siding and proceed on its way to Oleander and Maple Jnt.

My RVR mineral train stands on the main line at Sandstone. The 'smoke' coming out of the chimney is courtesy of my cheeky Production Assistant!

Despite leaving T-tree in opposite directions, my mineral train and Greg's No.9 hauled goods train have both arrived at Melaleuca, an important location on the line going 'up the hill' to Termite, the only 'indoor' station on the line! Melaleuca is another location that has expanded considerably since my last visit.

The station building at Melaleuca is a very nice model based on the NSWGR standard Pc3 precast concrete design.

When I last visited, this rather fine goods shed, obviously based on the NSWGR G1b design, served the small freight needs of Melaleuca station. It had been replaced with a sawmill at its previous location and now serves the intermediate siding at Oleander, in the Ti-tree - Maple Jnt section.

Another new location is Blackwall, a new crossing loop in the Ti-tree - Sandstone section. The reason for the name stands behind the nicely modelled timber-clad, skillion roofed station building...

Another new feature is this raised turntable, just 'north' of Melaleuca. My RVR No.3, a modified Aristocraft 2-4-2T, heads downhill with my 'Tasmanian' goods train on the main line behind.

Sometime later, my No.12 prepares to turn on the turntable as Greg's No.9 heads uphill towards Termite.

Completely new since I last visited is this diesel, scratchbuilt on USA Trains power bogies and based on the AIS diesels that ran at Port Kembla. It has a very interesting method of control; the radio system controls the (very impressive) sound system, which then controls the locomotive, the opposite of the norm. This means that the loco 'revs up' when accelerating and drops to idle when coasting! I like it and I want one!

Last shot of the day; a shaft of sunlight illuminates the rear of my 'Tasmanian' goods train as it waits permission to proceed while standing in the loop at Lilydale.

Thanks to Greg for inviting me, and I look forward to my next visit!

Memories of the Rurr Valley

2011-03-21T18:58:00.000+11:00

As some may know, as well as my HO scale NSWGR Lambing Flat layout, I also have a garden railway, the Rurr Valley Railway. This railway is built to (nominally) 1:24 scale on 45mm gauge track, representing 3ft 6ins gauge, and is 'inspired' by the railways that once existed on the west coast of Tasmania (particularly the Mt Lyell railway). The locos and rollingstock are mostly modified and adapted proprietary models from the likes of LGB and Bachmann, with a few scratchbuilt items. Sadly, the line has been very neglected since I was recruited to AMRM, especially after the flood of December 2007 that demolished one major bridge and severely damaged the other. Despite two more major floods in early 2010 that did even more damage, an attempt was made in June/August last year to revive it. This was partially successful, as I managed to get about half the line cleared and operational, but then, with the heavy rain late last year, and then the heat of summer preventing the heavy outdoor work needed to maintain it, the line has slipped back into 'services suspended' mode once more. However, come the cooler months, I intend to make another attempt to revive it!

In the meantime, here are a few shots from the 'heyday' of the line.

Back on 19 July 2005 the line was in fairly constant use and in pretty good condition. Here, RVR No.2, a conversion of an Aristocraft G scale 2-4-2 hauls a passenger train down the Bottom Road towards the terminus at Possum Point. The line originally had a zig-zag going up the side of the hill in the background and, despite the top section of the zig-zag being 'deviated' in 2002, the names 'Bottom' and 'Middle' roads have stuck. The passenger cars consist, from the front, of an LGB car modified to resemble the ex-Tasmanian Main Line Railway passenger car preserved at the Hobart Transport Museum, a purchased on eBay cut down kit of an English Lynton and Barnstaple Railway car that resembles some vehicles used on the Emu Bay Railway, a repainted and modified Bachmann American car that is reminiscent of the cars used on the North Mt Lyell Railway and a mostly scratchbuilt brakevan based on a Mt Lyell Abt railway van.

Still one of my favourite shots, on 3 May 2004 the RVR's No.1 drifts down the Bottom Road with an ore train. The loco is a heavily modified LGB 'Stainz', altered to resemble the Mt Lyell (and Burrinjuck) 2ft gauge Krauss-built locomotives. The vehicles are a modified Bachmann gondola, altered to resemble a Mt Lyell K type ore wagon and a scratchbuilt styrene model of the Emu Bay's B2 ore wagon.

This is a shot through the open doors of brakevan D6 at Possum Point on 12 June 2004. D6 was converted from a Lehmann (LGB) van to represent a 'might have been' rebuild in the style of the TGR's DB vans of early TGR four-wheel van D6.

No.1 again, coming off the Middle Road past the scratchbuilt signal box and water tank at Bottom Points on 7 October 2003. The first vehicle is a conversion of a Lehmann American style four-wheel boxcar to resemble an early Emu Bay Railway E van.

No.2, a conversion of a Bachmann Lynton and Barnstaple 2-4-2T Lyn, stands at the highest station on the line, Devlins, waiting to bring a passenger train 'down the hill', also on 7 October 2003. No.2 has, since 2006, been sitting on the workbench part way through conversion into a 'near enough' Mt Lyell Baldwin-built 0-6-0T. The station building is a cardboard mock-up that only comes out for running sessions.

This is what the line looked like the day after the disastrous flood of 5 December 2007. The two floods, a week apart, in early 2010 completely finished this bridge off. Luckily I recovered the girder spans during the week between them, or the whole bridge would have ended up in Sydney Harbour! A new bridge will have to be built before trains can run on the southern end of the line again.

There is hope yet! This photo shows the Bottom Road looking towards Possum Point, after Possum Point had been cleared, but before work started on the Bottom Road in July 2010.

This photo shows the view, from more or less the same spot as the previous photo, after a lot of hard work on 4 July 2010. Unfortunately, the view from this spot today would be more like the top photo again! However, winter is coming...

A NSWGR SV sheep van

2011-03-12T20:14:00.001+11:00

Back in the mid-1990s, I started to drift away from my original modelling period (the 1950s) and head in the direction of the 1920s-'30s, probably due to the 'bad' influence of the annual 'Modelling the Early Days of the NSW Railways' seminar! I had built a number of models suitable for that period and was in the process of building more when my 'hiatus' from HO modelling began. One of the models I had almost completed in 1998 was this SV sheep van.

The model was built from this copy of a NSWGR official drawing given to me by Craig Warton. (Thanks Craig!)

I haven't been able to find a photo of an SV that completely matches the drawing (not surprising, as there aren't that many photos available from that period at all) however, I have found this photo of a very similar SV in the collection of the Powerhouse museum.

This vehicle was one of the 'transition' designs between the original style of sheep van, like the one below, and the '1929' GSV design.

This basic design was used for most of the 19th century. They were double decked but had solid floors and they were very messy, labour intensive to keep clean and not at all pleasant for the stock.

A major breakthrough in sheep van design occurred at the turn of the 20th century when someone had the bright idea of putting grated floors in the vehicles, but with a 'hopper' under the top deck to shed the sheep droppings to the side, rather than onto the sheep on the bottom deck! (The bottom deck's droppings went straight onto the track.) The gap for the hopper can be seen in the photo of SV 8408 above and GSV 12368 below.

The design eventually evolved into the 1929 GSV, which except for the substitution of a standard 10ft wheelbase steel underframe under the batch of 250 built in 1948, finalised the design of NSWGR sheep vans till the type became extinct in the 1970s.

The 1929 design of GSV looked like this:

This photo is an NSWGR official photograph from the Craig Warton collection. It is standing at Flemington Markets, opposite the Flemington station platform, and was photographed sometime around 1930.

Enough of the prototype info, lets get back to the model!

The model was constructed from styrene and timber around the bar sections from a Silvermaz GSV kit. The etched brass W irons and buffer beam/buffer housings came from ILM. Construction was quite straightforward, cut out the appropriate bits of timber and styrene and glue together till it looks like an SV!

Here it is, ready for painting:

I construct sheep vans as three sub-assemblies. This makes it possible to paint the interior!

I painted it with a mix of SEM self-etch black and grey, to represent the NSWGR's 20th century wagon colour scheme, Gunmetal grey. The interior was weathered with a light spray of very dilute in Isocol alcohol Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth. When this was ok the model was glued together and the ‘canvas’ glued to the roof. To do this I spread white glue on the roof, then put some water in the sink and spread out a roughly cut to piece of tissue on top of the water. Quickly bringing the model up under the tissue results in a perfectly ‘stretched’ canvas roof once everything has dried and the tissue trimmed to size. The roof was then brush painted Badger Flat White.

The vehicle was decaled to represent the appearance of the prototypes circa 1920, with the wagon code on the underframe and the 'Westinghouse brake fitted' symbol on the ends. In this period the number only appeared on the wagon on the number plate and the wagon codes were just starting to appear, normally painted on the solebars next to the numberplate. The ‘Westinghouse brakes fitted’ symbol appeared on the ends of sheep vans, as there was nowhere else to put them!

I wanted to model it as a fairly new wagon, so I went 'light' on the weathering. The vehicle was given a light brush of Tamiya XF-64 Red Brown over the springs and brake shoes. A very light coat of Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth was sprayed over the body, concentrating on the underframe. Then some Badger Flat White was sprayed into the hopper section between the decks, to represent the bleaching that occurred in this area from the ovine by-products. The roof was then sprayed with my ‘roof muck’ mix of Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown and XF-1 Flat Black diluted with lots of Isocol and then my ‘road dust’ mix of Isocol and Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth sprayed from the sides, concentrating on the lower sections of the vehicle where one would expect to find road dust… As I wanted a vehicle in fairly good condition I finished off with a very light spray of dilute Aqueous Hobby Color H343 Soot. The ‘oil’ on the axleboxes was added with semi-gloss black and the coupler tangs painted matt black and it was ready to go on the layout.

Here is the SV in a train of suitable period rollingstock. On the left is an old type sheep van, then the new SV, and then a timber underframed 1929 GSV. Before the late 1920s all sheep vans were coded SV, but around that time the old type vans were re-coded OSV, the modern vans built, or re-built, to the 1929 design were coded GSV, while the rest which didn't fit into either category remained coded SV.

Sawn timber traffic on Lambing Flat

2011-03-09T20:25:00.000+11:00

Many years ago I purchased some Sydney Hobbies sawn timber loads, back when Sydney Hobbies was still owned by Geoff Kemmis (Geoff, where are you now? ;o). More recently I was given some of the newer Sydney Hobbies/Lit’le Trains timber load releases to review (coming soon!). Another link in the chain was the arrival of a Floquil Enamel Paint Markers Earth Tones three-pack (containing 81 Earth, 83 Mud and 86 Grime) also for a review (unfortunately, the review didn't get done as I couldn't find a suitable use for them - I tried them out on some wagons and was not impressed with the result.) These items all sat around independently until quite recently when I finally managed to allocate some time to the review of the timber loads. That was all very well, but how was I going to colour the loads to represent newly sawn timber? Then suddenly 'click', my subconscious brain combined the Floquil paint markers with the loads and I was away! (And I finally had a use for the paint markers!)

The Sydney Hobbies/Lit’le Trains loads are nicely cast in urethane and come in the usual Sydney Hobbies plastic bag with card header. There are two types of loads available, type one is represented by: SH 04 ‘S’ truck timber load and SH 30 ‘K’ truck timber load and are designed to be loaded according to NSWGR timber loading diagram No.1.

The second type [“K” truck load 24’ timber (N/Coast) and LT 19 “s” truck load 19’ timber (N/Coast)] is modelled on timber loaded according to NSWGR timber loading diagrams Nos 3 and 4.

However, if you aren't modelling the North Coast, they are equally useful for loading to diagram No.2.

The only difference is that the North Coast loads were secured with specially provided lashing chains while everywhere else used rope.

The type 1 loads were very quickly cleaned up and glued together with superglue, whereas the second type just needed cleaning up, then the fun began!

The second type, showing the stages from straight out of the bag (left) through the first coat of paint (centre - this is my first attempt, using a creamy yellow mixed up from Tamiya acrylics - I eventually just decided to use the Floquil Enamel Paint Marker No.83 Mud as the first coat and the 86 Grime as the finishing coat)

The loads to diagram 1, showing the stages from 'straight out of the bag' (centre) through assembled (left) to first coat of paint (right).

Once the first coat had dried (usually about a day, as these are enamel paints) the top coat(s) were applied. I ended up applying about three layers of paint, as I wanted a smooth but subtly graduated finish as shown in the next photo.

Once all the paint was dry I added lashing ropes from brown thread pinched from my wife's sewing room (shhh, don't tell her! ;o) held in place with superglue where the knots are tied and then a coat of matt clear to secure them.

Here are both types of sawn timber lengths loaded into an S and K according to diagram 1.

I 'roped up' my North Coast loads to diagram 2, as Lambing Flat is definitely not on the North Coast! Here are a couple of them loaded into S and K trucks.

As the loads are removable, I ran the ropes down the outside of the loads and secured the ends to the undersides. Those with plenty of wagons could make permanent loads and secure the tie down ropes to the lashing rings on the sides of the vehicles as per the loading diagrams.

I'm quite pleased with them, but how to justify them at Lambing Flat? After all, the majority of timber traffic on the NSWGR in my time period travelled from the North Coast to Sydney, didn't it? Or so one could be led to believe from published photographs... While I have no memory of seeing wagons loaded with timber at Young when I was living there, logically there must have been timber traffic of some sort, as there had to be some way the local timber yards and hardware stores received supplies in those days before everything went by road... Since I was actively looking for them, I did manage to find the odd truck of timber in my collection of publications and other photographic sources, such as this image from 'Remember When', compiled by Derek Rogers and published by the ARHS (NSW) in 1994.

This photo by Noel Reed shows a load of sawn timber ready to depart Oberon in 1955.

So we have justification for timber traffic on Lambing Flat!

Here is 3610 resting in the loop with a goods train that includes trucks loaded with sawn timber...

Part of old Lambing Flat site found!

2011-03-08T23:00:00.000+11:00

Some may remember my old Lambing Flat site, which gradually disappeared as first Geocities and my then host ISP, Connect Infobahn Australia, closed down (in the case of Geocities) and changed their services (CIA). I wasn't so worried about the model section of the site as it was pretty obsolete anyway, but the 'info' section was apparently useful to some and was a bit of a loss. Imagine my surprise when I recently stumbled across a 'mirror' site for Geocities that still has (most) of my old Geocities pages accessible! I have added all the pages I could find to the link section of this page.

A frustrating afternoon, or @#$%# brass locos!

2011-02-12T19:54:00.009+11:00

I was lucky enough to be modelling in the 1980s, and also to have a reasonable income at the time, so Lambing Flat acquired a small fleet of brass locomotives to handle the traffic in the days of DC. When I went DCC in 2006, I was suddenly without all my favourite NSWGR steam locomotives and had to keep traffic moving with a few r-t-r locos, some of which weren't quite what one would expect to see on the Blayney-Demondrille cross-country line! It had always been my intention to fit sound chips to my old brass locos as the opportunity arose. Between the magazine and the other parts of my life, it was quite a while before that occurred. The first to be converted, about a year ago, was 5262, a Classic loco, fitted with the 3650 gal. tender that originally came with my Mansfield 50 class. (I have an aversion to having things as the manufacturer intended!)

The conversion was reasonably straightforward, chip and speaker in the tender, rewire the loco and fit a plug between engine and tender. Reassemble, test, program and she was soon doing what she was designed for, hauling trains!

Here she is, trundling into Lambing Flat.

About four months ago, I decided it was about time I got another of my favourite locos back into service, this time Classic Brass P class, 3324. This loco has always been one of my very favourite engines, and had given over 20 years of reliable service as a DC powered loco. I was expecting a similar trouble free conversion to the 50 class...

Boy, was I mistaken! The actual fitting of the chip and speaker was just as simple and straightforward as with the 50 class, but as soon as I got it on to the tracks... nightmare! It shorted out, the bogie wouldn't stay on the tracks and half the time it wouldn't move at all (though the sound system would merrily chuff away as if it was!) What had happened to my lovely, reliable DC loco!

After a week or two of fiddling and modifying, I finally managed to get it going reasonably well. I had managed to track down most of the shorts (amongst other things, the brakegear would touch the wheels, the bogie wheels would touch the bogie frames and the loco mainframes and cylinders). A bit of readjustment of the 'bits', some paper superglued onto parts of the frame and a bit of grinding here and there had her going most of the time and a slight loosening of the gearbox coverplate got rid of most of the stalling (but not all). However, no matter what I did, I could not get it to run with a front coupler on (which it did perfectly well for years under DC).

I had heard that locos can be 'temperamental' under DCC, but this was ridiculous! The only thing I can think of to explain it is that the shorts were always there, but DC is a lot more 'forgiving' of intermittent shorts than DCC and so the loco would hesitate momentarily, then carry on, rather than shut down as it does under DCC. the stalling issue was probably likewise hidden by the characteristics of DC (if it doesn't start, give it more juice!) I think that I had unconsciously adapted my driving style under DC to accommodate the loco's idiosyncrasies, but under DCC, where I have set up the locos to behave like the real thing (lots of momentum) and drive them like one would a full-size loco (open the throttle to where I want the loco's speed to be when it has finished accelerating and let the software in the chip take care of the acceleration, then shut off 'steam' when I want to stop and let the loco 'drift' to a stand, or use the 'brake' function to stop sooner if needed). This method of driving locos definitely adds immeasurably to the realism of the layout, but it does cause problems with locos that aren't quite right. Despite this, however, there is no doubt that the average locomotive runs much more smoothly under DCC than under DC.

Anyway, back to the saga of 3324. Today I decided to see if I could solve a few of the problems that still afflicted her, and after much frustration and head scratching, I have almost managed it! The main problem was with the front bogie, it was still very temperamental and would still short out or derail every now and then. A very close inspection revealed that the bogie wheels were moving back and forth a little and coming into contact with the front of the engine frames and the guard iron (the piece of metal pointing down in front of the leading bogie wheels). A bit of grinding with the Dremel and some paper superglued on to the bottom surface fixed that. Testing was reasonably successful, but at abrupt changes of gradient (a bit of bad track in the engine siding - it has been referred to the Per Way dept for action!) I discovered that the guard irons were momentarily touching the track! Some more filing and that problem was taken care of. Buoyed by this success I fitted the front coupler (a loco that can't shunt from the front end is a bit of a nuisance on LF). First curve it came to (1m radius!) and it was in the dirt! Another close inspection revealed that even though I had cut a notch in each bogie sideframe to clear the coupler back in 1984 when she first entered service, it wasn't enough and the bogie was fouling the coupler. Why this hadn't been a problem back in DC days is still a mystery... Anyway, a bit more cutting and filing and that problem was behind me!

State of play is that 3324 now goes around all the curves and through the less than perfect track on the layout, but still occasionally 'gets stuck' and stalls (a tap on the cab roof gets her going). If anyone has any ideas about solving this one, I'm all ears!

Here is the culprit...

Considering that she was last painted in 1984, and has had a lot of handling since, she isn't in too bad a condition, but she definitely is in need of a 'tune up' of the weathering. That is the next job on the agenda...

So what have I learnt from this? Well, had I known how difficult this loco was going to be to convert to DCC, I think I might have sold it to a rich collector and invested in a couple more Trainorama 32s! (They look great once the strange gap in the barrel of the chimney is filled and the wheels painted, they run beautifully and are very easy to fit with DCC.) However, it has highlighted that no matter how well brass locos run under DC, they can be temperamental under DCC and it pays to check them very carefully for shorts and binding.

Coal traffic on Lambing Flat and weathering the Eureka Models four-wheel coal hoppers

2011-02-10T23:05:00.005+11:00

I've had a couple of straight-out-of-the-box Eureka Models four-wheel coal hoppers (an LCH and a CCH) trundling around the layout for ages now. One might be forgiven for asking what a couple of coal hoppers would be doing in the Central West, given the scarcity of coal mines. Surprising as it may seem, they did appear from time to time on the Blayney-Demondrille line (which is the inspiration for Lambing Flat, at least trafficwise). Apart from their use as 'match trucks' (to allow the coupling of vehicles with autocouplers only to hook drawgeared vehicles - LCH and CCH hoppers had autocouplers and buffers) they were also seen quite regularly in small numbers (as were the BCH bogie hoppers), conveying loco coal from the mines around Lithgow to the coal stages at Demondrille and Junee. They could be used for coal consigned to these locations as these stages were the large 'bunker' types and could be recharged from hopper wagons. Every other location sourcing loco coal via the Blayney-Demondrille line had the low stages, which required some poor labourer to shovel the coal out of an open wagon manually. Traffic to these coal stages mainly travelled in S and K trucks.

Here is a scan of Chris Sim's photo, published in Lawrance Ryan's 'Lines to the Lachlan - revised edition' showing 5412 standing at Blayney with the Cowra mixed on 13 January 1966.

Included in the consist are a couple of loaded BCH coal hoppers destined for the coal stage at Demondrille or Junee.

So, having established that the LCH and CCH are legitimate vehicles to run through Lambing Flat, it was time to 'scruff' them up a bit, as unweathered vehicles, no matter how well made, have no place on LF!

Ok, so let’s get out some blacks and browns and slather it all over the models... ahh... no!

When I weather a model, I don't just throw some generic paint at it and call it weathered, I try to replicate the weathering patterns see on the real thing. Each vehicle type (and the same with locos and passenger rolling stock) develops a distinctive weathering pattern, depending on its design, usage and areas of operation. So the first step is not to get out the paints, the first step is to find some photos of the prototype and establish what sort of weathering occurred to the prototype.

My collection of calendars and books stretches back to the late 1960s, so I have plenty of photos to be inspired by... the biggest problem is finding them in the huge pile of reference!

A couple of enjoyable nights browsing turned up these...

This is a section from a photograph taken at Port Waratah in 1971 by Peter Attenborough that was published in the AMRM 2005 Calendar (November). It shows quite nicely a selection of weathered four-wheel hoppers.

The NSWRTM Calendar for 1992 (June) turned up this photo by Graham Cotterall, captured near Sandy Hollow on 12 April 1969, which shows two nicely weathered CCH hoppers acting as match trucks either side of a bufferless S truck.

While these photos were taken quite late in the steam era, the weathering pattern is quite consistent with what I have observed in earlier photos. Some of the features that stand out include the rusty patina on the metal parts of the vehicles and the weathering of the timber parts to a greyish tint. As is typical of four-wheelers, there is a particular build-up of rust on the springs and drawgear.

OK, now we know what they are supposed to look like, it’s time to get the weathering paints out! For this project, I used Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown, Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth and Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color H343 Soot, diluted with Isocol alcohol, applied as per my article Weathering with Acrylics - Simple Techniques for Rolling Stock which appeared in AMRM No.265 (August 2007).

First step (after giving them a very thorough wash in warm water with a touch of detergent added, then rinsing) was to apply a wash of Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown, heavily diluted with Isocol alcohol, to the metal parts of the wagons.

The wagon springs, wheel rims and brakeshoes were then brush painted with a not quite so dilute solution of the Flat Brown and Isocol. Once that had all dried, a very light coat of dilute Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth was airbrushed around the bottom of the vehicle and then a very dilute mix of Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color H343 Soot was sprayed over the wagon. When that had dried a final wash of very dilute Soot was brush painted on to the timber parts of the wagons.

Before starting to paint, I had added some interior detail to the 'hungry boards' of the CCH and fixed the metal spreader bars in place inside the wagons according to Peter Jarvis's article Enhancing Eureka's Coal Hoppers in AMRM No.274 (February 2009) with the difference that these are closer to the correct position in the LCH and the coal load (not shown) modified to sit slightly higher than Peter's article.

The CCH showing the interior. The 'hungry boards' have been scribed to represent the planks and wood grain, plus the metal strengthening strips replicated with styrene strips and the spreader bars glued in place.

The LCH had had the spreader bars added, slightly higher than in Peter's article. The plastic coal loads provided by Eureka were modified to sit down over the bars, a per Peter's article, and then real coal glued on top of them. They are still removable, as are all the loads in use on LF.

Here they are, loaded with Lithgow 'rock', enroute to Demondrille.

The wider scene shows NSWGR Standard Goods No.5262, rolling into Lambing Flat sometime in the mid-1950s with a mixed train from Cowra. Included in the consist are the loaded coal hoppers bound for the coal stage at Demondrille.

A serendipitous discovery, or, the very belated completion of RU25241.

2011-02-01T18:39:00.001+11:00

Back in the late 1990s I basically stopped modelling in HO scale. It was triggered by the purchase of my first 'modern' PC and then the family moved from Burwood to Beecroft in 1999 and I was able to indulge in a long supressed desire to have a garden railway. The first part of the 2000s was taken up with the construction of my 1:24 scale 'Rurr Valley Railway' and then in 2006 I suddenly found myself the Production Manager of the Australian Model Railway Magazine. Getting AMRM 'under control' was a steep learning curve and modelling very much took a back seat to everything else that was going on in my life, including playing over 35 soccer with the Beecroft Wombats! However, lately I have rediscovered the joys of modelling in HO scale and while delving into the long hidden 'down at the bottom, at the back' of my 'display' cabinet I found this...

I had built this RU wheat hopper from a Trax/Casula kit, with the addition of an ILM RU 'dress-up' kit, during the late 1990s. I have around 20 RU wagons on the layout, some constructed from modified Trax/Casula kits and some unmodified (but weathered) r-t-r Trainorama (original release), placed into service between 1983 and the late '90s. Construction on this one had been completed to the initial painting stage, but then came the sudden cessation of HO scale modelling activities, and the model was placed in the back of the display case and promptly forgotten about for over 10 years! I 'rediscovered' it a week or so ago and this is how it looked in late January 2011 when I had finally decalled it and done the first wash of Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown. I was aiming for the 'grimy with a brown tinge' that the prototypes adopted after a short time in service. When I started painting it back in 1990-whatever I had undercoated it with self etch black and then applied a light 'colour coat' to tint to a dark grey to represent weathered NSWGR Gunmetal grey. What paint I actually used for that effect, I no longer remember! I had started to apply the next layer of weathering, washes of Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown, using the techniques I outlined in my article 'Weathering with Acrylics - Simple Techniques for Rolling Stock' in AMRM Issue 265 (August 2007). Then it was forgotten... When I rediscovered it, I first of all added decals, using 'bits' from various decal sheets I have 'tucked away' after over 30 years of modelling in HO scale (in other words, I have no idea what they are or where they come from!) Then the whole model was washed with the diluted in Isocol alcohol Tamiya Flat Brown, letting the brown accumulate around the ribs and other protrubences of the model. Next step was to get out the airbrush and put on the final weathering layer (I allow a few models to accumulate, then I 'final layer' the lot in one hit; more on them in a future post...). First I did a very light spray of Tamiya XF-52 Flat earth around the chassis of the model, to represent road dirt thrown up by the movement of trains, then gave it a very light 'mist' of Gunze Sangyo Aqueous Hobby Color H343 Soot to 'tie it all together'. Once that was done I handpainted some flat black on the coupler trip pin (to disguise it as a brake hose) and added some semi-gloss black around the axleboxes, to represent spilt lubrication oil. It now looks like this...

I just realised, while writing this, that I had forgotten to paint in the waybill behind the wagon clip, just to the right of the number. No worries, a short break and its done in the next photo!

So, while it may have taken over ten years, another RU has finally joined the other 20 or so RU hoppers trundling around Lambing Flat, moving the wheat and otherwise generally being useful and picturesque!

EHO1473, or is it 1469?

2011-01-15T18:46:00.004+11:00

One of the disadvantages of having an end-to-end layout is that the rollingstock gets a fair amount of handling in the fiddle yards, so inevitably there is the occasional mishap and something gets damaged. Footboards on passenger cars are particularly vulnerable and this proved to be the case with my EHO as the years of handling (it was completed in October 1990) had resulted in the separation of some of the footboard brackets from the solebar of the carriage. Two of them had, in fact, disappeared. It found its way to 'workshops' (the modelling bench) and was soon back in service after some minor repairs.

This EHO was constructed by using the sides from the urethane kit of a mansard roofed EHO put out by Main West Models in the early 1980s (the kit was reviewed in AMRM Issue 123, December 1983). I'm not terribly good at building kits the way the manufacturers intended ;o) and this one was no exception, as rather than build yet another mansard roofed EHO, I decided to construct it as a low semi-elliptical roofed van, from Contract 5/10 of 13 vehicles, numbered from 1466 to 1478, which were delivered between November 1910 and May 1911. The sides were the only part of the kit I used. I scratchbuilt a new chassis, ends and roof. The chassis and ends were mainly styrene, with timber and brass detailling parts, while the roof was carved from balsa and covered with tissue to represent canvas.

Now to the reason for the title of this piece!

One of the advantages of an end-to-end layout is that only one side of a vehicle is visible when the model is present on the layout. When I started building Lambing Flat back in 1983 I soon worked out that I could have twice the number of passenger vehicles for half the effort by giving them different identities on each side. It also meant that I could not only give them different numbers on each side, but I could also paint them in different colour schemes! Just about all my (appropriate) passenger rolling stock is painted Tuscan and russet on one side and post 1954 Indian red on the other! This EHO is no different, while both sides are painted Tuscan red, 1469 has the top buff line and lining out around the guard's door, (I have since discovered that it probably should be lined out around the luggage doors as well) as was common in the early 1950s. EHO1473, on the other hand, has no lining at all, as became common in the late 1950s.

The '1469' side, Tuscan red with the lining out style used (officially) from 1946.

The '1473' side, with the plain red scheme, with no lining at all, used from the late 1950s.

So, while this dear old relic of a bygone age is not up to the standard of the ILM high semi-elliptical roofed EHO kit (after all, the masters for that one were constructed by the Great Guru of Lindfield, Mike McCormac, by way of practice for his own 'dogbox' range, which, hopefully, will be released before we all die of old age... ;o) it has served Lambing Flat well for over 20 years and will remain a useful member of the fleet for many years to come, even if I do get around to finishing my ILM EHO!

Removable Wagon Loads

2011-01-15T15:20:00.007+11:00

One of the things I have attempted to model with Lambing Flat is the prototypical movement of traffic across the layout. A major part of achieving this particular illusion is the provision of loads in the wagons as they move through the visible part of the layout. However, I have never liked having permanently loaded wagons, as this restricts what can be modelled, trafficwise.

Back in the '80s I came up with a design for removable loads, which greatly improved the 'illusion' of the vehicles on the layout actually moving goods.

The basic design consists of a timber base designed to fit in a wagon, with a suitable load glued on the top. Uncovered loads, such as coal, were fairly straightforward, a small piece of foam, left over from scenery building, was carved to shape, painted black, then small pieces of coal glued onto the top surface.

Not so simple were tarpaulins! On the NSW railways up till the early 1980s, tarpaulin covered open wagons dominated ordinary goods trains. The tarpaulins were constructed to standard dimensions (the vast majority measuring 24' x 16') at the NSWGR's tarpaulin factory at the southern end of Enfield yard (the building was still there the last time I looked last new year's eve!) They were made from bleached canvas and when new, were almost white. However, they soon weathered to an almost infinite variety of dirty brown/greys.

I model removable tarpaulins by starting with my standard timber base, then constructing a 'former' from card, if I am modelling the very common version with the tarp supported by two 'A frames' (to give the tarps a 'slope' so they would shed water) or a suitable 'construction' of timber offcuts if I am modelling a high load, such as wool or wheat bags. A standard sized tarpaulin is then made from ordinary printer paper. To get the tarpaulin 'look' I first fold it up, the unfold it and crumple it with my fingers. I then stretch it over the former and glue down with PVA glue, making sure that enough space is left to clear the sides of the wagon! Once it is dry I paint the tarp with Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and then attach a few lengths of a suitable brown thread to the sides to represent the tie-down ropes. Once that is all dry I weather the tarp with washes of various browns and greys untill I get the shade I want.

I also use a variety of other loads, some of which are illustrated below.

The undersides of some of the loads available for use on Lambing Flat, showing the basic construction of a timber base with either a bulk load, such as coal, or a tarpaulin streched across the top.

A pair of removable loads on two S trucks. The load on the left represents a nondescript load of crates while the load on the right represents a load of bagged wheat, correctly covered by two overlapped standard NSWGR 'traffic' tarpaulins.

A rake of S trucks with tarpaulins stretched over the standard A frames much used in the steam and early diesel era.

An S truck and an original wooden BD wagon loaded with bags of wheat, properly covered with overlapped tarpaulins.

S, U and K wagons loaded with coal.

A collection of miscellaneous loads. The D truck on the left has a load of Loco ash, made from sprinkling a mixture of plaster dust and black powder colour over a former of foam. The next D truck has a load of sacks, which, if I remember correctly, are UK made from cast plaster and though designed for 4mm scale British wagons, fit perfectly into a D wagon. The plaster was painted with a wash of acrylic paint. The steel S truck has a timber load made by Duha in Europe and imported by etrains in WA. The last D wagon has another British cast plaster load, representing bagged wheat.

Representative of the other types of loads that can be modelled is this cast whitemetal Fordson tractor (don't ask my what it is, I think I bought it from Keith Hudson's Modeller's World about 30 years ago!) loaded on an E wagon. The steel S has a tarp stretched across the wagon, but without the A frames.

Hopefully, these notes will provide some ideas that can be used to provide removable loads suitable for your purposes!

A pretty picture...

2011-01-11T23:44:00.002+11:00

Just to get things started, here is a photo I took the other day of my first Trainorama 32 class preparing to depart Lambing Flat on a goods train (I have another, but is not yet fitted with a DCC chip).

The locomotive has been slightly modified by filling the gap at the bottom of the chimney and painting the running gear and front step black. It has been fitted with the 'scale' wheel diameter leading bogie and a Tsunami (D&RGW K class) sound chip that has been 'tuned' to both act and sound more like a NSWGR 32 class (It runs beautifully, btw). I will get around to weathering it eventually.

My new blog

2011-01-11T22:38:00.000+11:00

First the closure of Geocities removed part of the old Lambing Flat site and then cia changed its accounts and did for most of the rest of it, so I have finally got around to starting a blog. Hopefully some of the things on the old site will return as I learn more about what can be done with this site.

In the meantime I'll post links to the photos on my Fotopic site:
Lambing Flat at Fotopic

and the videos on my Youtube site: Lambing Flat on Youtube

and some remnants of the old Lambing Flat site that are still 'out there':

Archival Recording No.2 Stockinbingal's NSWGR 36' G2 type goods shed

The 'Rurr Valley Reporter':

September 2004

June/July 2004

May 2004

February 2004

January 2004

Don't expect too much to start with, but I'll try to get some more up as time goes by.